Myanmar Oral History Project - life stories

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites. The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 spee...

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites. The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 spee...

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites. The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 spee...

Maurice Collis was born in Dublin in 1889, the son of an Irish solicitor, and went to Rugby in 1903 and then in 1907 to Oxford.  He was posted to Burma  in 1912. He had postings at Sagaing  and elsewhere in Burma. In 1917, the British army raised a Burmese brigade with which Collis went to Palestine. In 1919, he went on leave and travelled in Europe. In the 1920s he was district commissioner in Ar...

U Win Htein is an elder politician of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's right hand man, a former parliamentarian, army captain and businessman. U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy &quot...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

U Win Htein is an elder politician of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's right hand man, a former parliamentarian, army captain and businessman. U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy &quot...

U Win Htein is an elder politician of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's right hand man, a former parliamentarian, army captain and businessman. U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy &quot...

U Win Htein is an elder politician of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's right hand man, a former parliamentarian, army captain and businessman. U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy &quot...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai. Sao Noan Oo was studying in England at the time of the 1962 coup and her scholarship was cancelled.   Given what happened to her family and other Shan families after that coup she has never returned to Myanmar but has tirelessly fought...

U Hpone Thant (commonly known as Harry) born 1945 talks about what it was like to own a car in the 60s and 70s in Myanmar. For those who are interested in stories like this, there is a Old Burma Hands group on Facebook  Send us Fan Mail

U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy " which can be purchased as a ebook from many online booksellers such as https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/win-hteins-story-for-posterity-win-htein/1140822639. At the age of...

U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy " which can be purchased as a ebook from many online booksellers such as https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/win-hteins-story-for-posterity-win-htein/1140822639. At the age of...

Sao Noan Oo was born in 1931 in Shan State as a princess, being the daughter of the Sawbwa or Sao Hpa of Lawksawk, a state in the Federated Shan States or Mong Tai ; an area of approximately 62,000 square miles occupying a quarter of Burma, Before the military coup in 1962, the Shan State was divided into thirty-three and each area (also called a state or mong), had a number of towns and villages;...

U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy " which can be purchased as a ebook from many online booksellers such as https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/win-hteins-story-for-posterity-win-htein/1140822639. At the age of...

TT has had a stellar career and even at the age of 91 he continues to chair the wood processing company, Greengold Industrial Company Limited he co-founded in 1997. TT talks about how the country was run by foreigners during his childhood - not just the British - and the years during WW2 when the Japanese were in Myanmar.  For me, one of the most interesting stories from those years is that, when...

TT advises that the expansion work on the shipyard and building of ships came to a halt in 1988 following the take over by General Saw Maung and General Than Shwe, but TT continued his role as Managing Director until 1991 when he turned 60 and was required to retire.  He then worked as an advisor to the Shipyard Corporation for another two years before moving to Singapore and elsewhere to work in...

U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy. He has written his autobiography entitled " Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy " which can be purchased as a ebook from many online booksellers such as https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/win-hteins-story-for-posterity-win-htein/1140822639. This first sho...

Harry talks about his life story which includes his early education at Lady Paw Tun kindergarten before going on to Methodist English High School (also Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's school).  On graduating, as schools and universities were closed after the 1962 coup by General Ne Win, he applied for and won a scholarship to attend Lomonosov Moscow State University and graduated with a Master in Poli...

Padoh Saw David Tharckabaw has been an active member of the Karen National Union (KNU) since joining the organisation full time as a young teenager in 1949; only two years after the KNU was established in 1947.    David has spent the rest of his long life supporting the key aims of the KNU which include the establishment of a Karen State with the right to self determination and the setting up of a...

The family of U Aung Soe Lwin (or who is more commonly known as Sammy Samuels) has had a long presence in Myanmar.  His grandfather arrived from Iraq in the 1890s and the family has lived in Yangon since that time. Sammy's father, Moses, died in 2015 and the family is now headed by Sammy.  It is thought the first Jew of record in Burma was Solomon Gabirol who in 1755 was a commissar to King A...